Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Austin Reaves Scores 41, Lakers Put Up a Good Fight, but Lose to Portland 122-108

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

The Lakers were a step beyond shorthanded Monday, playing without Luka Dončić, LeBron James, Marcus Smart, Jaxson Hayes, Gabe Vincent (who is expected to miss 2-4 weeks with damage to his ankle) and Maxi Kleber. This on the second night of a back to back. So they were very, very short of ball handlers, very short of scoring, and were up against one of the more athletic and aggressive teams in the league. It wasn't pretty, but you can't fault the effort. Lakers still lose, though, 120-108. Too many turnovers (23) not enough shooting (7-27), not enough guys ready for this type of burn. Austin Reaves again was a hero, with 41 points, but was hurt by fatigue and relentless pressure from the Blazers (eight turnovers). The Lakers got another decent game from Deandre Ayton (16/8/2/1) but Portland's size was clearly impactful. Overall, the Lakers worked incredibly hard, and while the rebounding was an issue (particularly when Donovan Clingan was in the game) JJ Redick was pleased with the halfcourt defense, at least on those first attempts. Dalton Knecht may have found a little life, pressed into action and scoring 16 points, which was 16 of the 18 the bench produced. While Vincent will be out a while, Redick said he was hopeful that Smart and Hayes might be back for Wednesday's game in Minnesota. We'll see. With a couple more bodies, the Lakers could make a game of it, since Anthony Edwards won't be on the floor (hamstring).  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky  SEGMENT 1: The Lakers put up a fight, but lose.  SEGMENT 2: Injuries are piling up.  SEGMENT 3: Positives to pull, including signs of life from Knecht?  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashNext time someone goes off for 50, use promo code NBA50the next day to get 50% off on DoorDash with DashPass — plus your shot at the Bag Drop.DashPass members only. 50% off up to $10 the day after a 50-point game with promo code. Terms apply.No Purchase Necessary. Ends April 13th. Open to U.S. residents 21 or older. Visit DoorDashInYourBag.com for full details.DoorDash — In your bag all season long. QuoSee why over 90,000 businesses trust Quo, formerly OpenPhone. Get started free and get 20% off your first 6 months at https://www.Quo.com/LOCKEDONNBA.RipplingGet Rippling FREE for 6 months. Terms and conditions apply. See site for details: https://app.rippling.com/legal/promotermsRobinhoodYou expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBAfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com. MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at https://monarch.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first yearFanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting https://FanDuel.comto get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Tuesday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, Austin Reeves drops 41, but a short-handed Lakers crew lose to Portland. What can we take away from it? That's next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts network, your team every day.

Thanks to everyone for making Lockedown Lakers, your first listen to every day Monday through Friday, no matter how where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free. never locked behind a paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 36,000, damn near 37,000 subscribers to the channel, Andy, all of whom I would think are respectful,

certainly of the effort the Lakers put out against Portland on Monday night. I don't think short-handed is a fair description of what the Lakers were. Actually, it is, and I'll explain why, but continue. I think it's actually in a lot of ways the perfect word for it. I think it's not even like descriptive enough of how many people they were missing. Again, I actually will get into it.

I think it's actually in a lot of ways the literally perfect way. Oh, I think I know where you're going. I thought we were going to be, we were like one step away from Chris Kamen lying down on the bench. But before we get there, do you need to let people know that today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app.

Create an account. Use a code. Locked on NBA for $20. off your first purchase. So I'm just going to run through the list of players who were not available in this game for the Lakers on the second night of a back-to-back following a game with her short-handed in Sacramento on Sunday. So no Luca Donchich, no LeBron James, no Marcus Smart, no Jackson Hayes, no Gabe Vincent, who's going to be out for a little while. We'll try to get to that before the end of things tonight. No Maxie Kleba. Am I forgetting anyone?

A dude Thierro. A do Thierro. Do Thierro is not. And it really sucks for him because this is a game where he would have played. Damn right. He's on the floor. So the Lakers were without that's, you know, even six guys from their rotation. Well, in particular, what I was getting at with the idea of short-handed,

it's not just that they were missing that many guys. It's how many guys they were missing. who handle the ball between Luca, LeBron, Gabe, and Marcus. Those are four of your top five ball handlers, floor generals, orchestrators of any type of semi-cohesive offense. You and I were texting during the game. And I said to you with this current crew of available players, obviously Austin's number one,

but the second best ball handler in terms of guys that JJ would want to put on the floor under normal circumstances might be Jared Vanderbilt, to which you said, I might say Jake Laravia. Either way, that's not good. Respectfully to both of those guys,

if they are either one of them, your number two ball handler, unless we're talking about back when they were in high school, this is not a good thing. Or they're playing it like LA Fitness or something. Right. Then it'll work. That's fine.

But yeah, I mean, look, the Lakers were, like you say, were short a ton of it. And it showed. Well, yeah. And add to that the fact that they were, you know, some of this, quite frankly, should have been able to have been done what we saw in this game on Monday where the Lakers turned ball over 23 times and they just struggle to generate offense, struggle to generate looks and all that stuff. Some of this should have been able to have been done by the Kings.

Portland is actually a young, a young, very aggressive defensive team, and we're just all over. And so, you know, Austin Reeves, who did yeoman's work on Monday. I am not being slightly critical of him, 41 points. He had five more assists. He was 13 of 22 from the field, 12 of 14 from the line. And so it wasn't even like a big volume night for AR. He was just great again. But you could see both the fatigue of doing this two nights in a row.

And then the ball pressure from Portland, they had eight turnovers against five assists. And this is after having in the previous two games, 20 assists against three turnover. So, I mean, he's been playing so clean. And again, this is not a criticism of AR because when he took the ball out of his hands or Portland did, it got even worse. Portland, they are a very bad team for the Lakers to be facing with this particular

limitation. Like if they were missing key players, but the skill sets were more varied, it might be easier for them to get by. Like if say they were missing, even like Luca and LeBron, but then D'Andre Aiton and Jake LaRavia, like it might be easier to get through some of them. But, again, missing so many guys that you would use to handle the ball, to orchestrate offense. And Portland, they are a team with a lot of long, aggressive, athletic defenders. And they didn't just pressure Austin every time he touched the ball.

And then you everybody, right, the minute they touch the ball. And then you add to that, you know, the Lakers, and this is something that was very interesting that J.J. Radick said, I thought, you know, he was, because it's hard. take away stuff in this game. There's one big thing. I think that might be something the Lakers can hopefully build on in terms of individual performances that we'll get to before the end of the show. But it's hard to take big lessons about your team when you're playing without five guys in your rotation. Like it just, it is. But, you know, JJ said, like, we did a lot of good things. our first possession

defense in the half court was quite good. He was very pleased with that. But there's an emphasis on like, yeah, they gave up a lot of rebounds. And part of that is, again, who's missing? But also, you have Donovan Klingin in the middle and the Lakers,

especially when Aiton wasn't on the floor, had nobody who could, you know, like guys were trying, but Klingin is just enormous. And they just didn't have the bodies and the bulk for that. I just, you know, I, first and foremost, enormous amount of respect for what it took for AR to put up the kind of performance

that he did. And really appreciated though. There were three or four times when in the second half, when it looked like the Lakers could kind of credibly go ahead and call it a night. And they didn't. Like they made Portland play. until the last couple minutes of this game. And then, you know, if they didn't threaten,

they didn't get within one or two or three, but they kept it close enough. The Portland had to play this game. And there were many chances for the Lakers pack it in, and they did not do that. Well, I, whether this was a recognition of, hey, if we can somehow manage to win this game, get ourselves to three and one,

and maybe give ourselves against a lot of big time odds, a bit more of a cushion for how, however long they're without Luca, without LeBron, without Gabe Vincent, will get into his reported length of absence later in the show. Marcus Smart. JJ said after the game that they are hopeful that Marcus and Jackson Hayes could be available to play Wednesday against the Timberwolves, who will not have Anthony Edwards.

So that is a bit of a break for the Lakers. But Wednesday, of course, against the Timberwolves is scheduled to tip off. sometime before game three of the World Series ends. I know. It's insane. The Lakers game started two and a half hours after the Dodgers and ended, as of this. It's still going. We waited as long as we could.

It ended like an hour before the Dodgers, an hour and counting before the Dodgers were done. But like, JJ expressed some, I don't know if you'd call it. optimism, hope, prayer, whatever, that those guys could be available on Wednesday, but he didn't commit to it. Either way, though, Marcus and Jackson coming back will be helpful. There's no question, but it still does not really clamp down on what could become a real issue for the Lakers as they try to wade through this period of just trying to create functional offense without enough guys who will start possessions, get everyone in the right places, make competent passes, things like that. Again, like, if you're debating between La Ravia or Vando is your second best ball handler

and floor general, those guys worked hard and they actually did a decent job moving the ball, but it's still not ideal. No. There are a couple things that were revealed, I think, in this game about just the construction of the Lakers. And we'll get to that next. Lockdown Lakers is brought to you by Fandul. The NBA is back, and there's no better place to get in on the action that Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA, even if you miss the start of a game or want to ride a hot hand, Fandul has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks.

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Terms apply. That's code L-O-C-E-O-N-N-BA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, tap, ticket, go. I look at what happened in this game. and Nick Smith, a perfectly reasonable person to sign on a two-way or whatever, but it is clear why he was sort of available. You hope you can kind of turn him into.

So he's very athletic. He's very quick. He's sort of all over the place and he's not much of a floor general and he's very undersized. And so, you know, when you look at the players they had on the floor and then, you know, like Brani, that had a really bad first shift, had a really nice play at the second

and the end of the first half that led to a bucket for the Lakers and played pretty well defensively in the second half, which is why he was on the floor at best defender that they had available. But he is clearly overmatched still, particularly at that size

against, you know, frontline NBA talent. You start to go through this thing, no maxi-clay, but not a bit like, it's pretty clear. the top 10 guys in the Lakers rotation is kind of where it drops off. There is no established 11th guy unless Dalton Connect can find something in this stretch where he's going to have to play.

And it didn't get off to a great start, but by the end of the game, Dalton actually looked like he had found a little bit of rhythm, and a little bit of confidence. He finished with 16 points, 5 of 13 from the floor, a couple steals, he had a block. And, you know, the Lakers need to find an 11th and 12th player because the drop-off is pretty dramatic. And Gabe Vincent's out for a while.

Yeah, Dan Wojke from The Athletic tweeted out, quote, source tells me Gabe Vincent will be out between two to four weeks with an ankle strain slash sprain. He was in a boot and crutches today in the locker room. You mentioned before the idea of an 11th man, and obviously you start looking at like the bottom third of the roster, and it can feel kind of dicey, particularly when you're starting to include all three of your two-way players. You know, Chris Mannion and Christian Coloco both only played a few minutes each.

like Coloco in particular did not look good in the few minutes that he played. I've been a Coloco proponent from last year, but he did not have a particularly good preseason, and it's hard to get thrown into the fire under these circumstances, but nonetheless, he did not look good. Most teams, though, if they really start having to rely on guys 11 through 15 for real minutes, especially when, again, the type of players, that we mentioned are missing,

most teams, to be perfectly honest, are going to be... Oh, for sure, for sure. This is not unique to the Lakers. No, I think it's true. I'm not even really counting, like, the two-way guys. I'm looking at Brani, who's not ready. And, you know, I wouldn't expect Thierro if he was healthy

to be somebody you could count on for, like, reasonable minutes. I don't think, you know, like, we'll see, like, maybe Claibor when he's healthy. It's like, at least, when's that going to be? Like, there are teams, you know, like, the best teams in the league have guys that are sort of outside the regular rotation, who if you got in there, like, would be replacement level or better. You mentioned. You mentioned Dalton.

The difference between Dalton and Brony and whatever two-way players you're going to name or Thero, Dalton was the guy that's supposed to be ready. Correct. Like, Dalton is the guy that there should not be, even if Dalton was outside. the 10-man rotation for whatever reason. Like sometimes, you know, it takes guys a while to crack into a rotation with a lot of veteran players and aspirations of making deep playoff runs or winning a championship.

Like that's not unusual. But Dalton should be ready to play. Correct. If needed. And it's just been very erratic. Like you said, hopefully the fourth quarter, just helps him establish some rhythm that he can carry into the game against Minnesota

because he's going to play. I mean, even if Marcus and Jackson are back for that game, I think Dalton is still going to play because they're short too many players. And again, ball handling players. Like Dalton, for the guys that are missing, Dalton qualifies as a ball handling option. Even if, again, like the other guys we mentioned,

he's not ideal for the role. Relative to your options, You got to throw him in there, and they need the scoring, they need the shooting. They need him to find that form from early last season when people were wondering if the Lakers somehow how to top five player land in their lap. You don't necessarily have to be that good, but he needs to not look like a player that just spending an hour in the Hornets building sucked all of the talent out of his life. That scene in the dark crystal. And out of his body. What?

Muppet loses his, it's the scene in the dark crystal where that Muppet loses its life essence. I, I, it's in that, the distinction that you're making there is really important. What do you mean? Everybody remembers that. Excellent obscure 40 year reference. Well, watching sports for six hours now. Give me a break. Oh, it's a great movie.

great movie. Scared the heck out of me when I was little. You were a little long time ago. It's true. Hard to believe. I'm only 26 years old. So I think the distinction you're making here is an important one because people are, you know, get mad at Nick Smith and they might get mad at Brony or whatever it is. Like, Brony is overmatched. Yes, Brony's overmatched. Like, I thought, again, I thought he did some really nice things defensively in the second half. Offensively, he's just not somebody who you really can rely on other than to make, like, connecting. He still plays at the pro at the NBA level.

In the G League, they've got him doing point guard stuff. In the NBA level, he's a wildly undersized two who can't shoot. He had back-to-back turnovers that I would least give Brunney credit. like the variety was off the chart. He turned the ball over attempting a wraparound. I want to say to D'And that didn't go well. And then on the next possession, he turned the ball over by stepping out of bounds.

So in that sense, the discrepancy was pretty wide. And again, like, he's not necessarily supposed to be running out. That's what I was getting it. Regardless of how you think about the pick, the backstory, the nepotism, like whatever. Brony isn't under reasonable expectations. supposed to be somebody you can count on right now.

Dalton. Correct. Right. And I think that's the big distinction is they need to find some of these guys that are sort of not in the road because the way that, you know, we're already, we're already seeing it. And so, you know, Wednesday, for example, the Lakers have a game in Minnesota against an antless Timberwolves team. And if you get Marcus Smart back and you get, you know, Jackson Hayes back. that's a winnable game. I mean, they just beat, you know, they beat in Minnesota.

Granted, you know, it was with Luca, but, you know, take away Luca, take away. Right. I mean, so take away Luca, takeaway aunt. And there's something going on there. You got a chance. But it can't just be AR. It can't just be with like a little bit of extra from DeAndre Aden, who played another nice game, I thought, against. against Portland.

You're going to need, you know, Jake La Ravia, for example, the peripheral stats by the end of the game were okay, but you needed more than six shots and one field goal. Let's stay on this for a second when we get back, because this was a game that I think revealed something important about La Ravia and just sort of how the state that the Lakers are in right now can expose specific issues. So we'll get into that coming up next.

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That's monarch.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year. You had a point to make, Andy, about Jake LaRabia. Yeah, it was interesting watching this game. And Jake's stats while he was inefficient from the floor en route to three points, one of six from the field. I picked him up for my fantasy team for this game thinking just by accident he was going to have 12 points or 14 points. Right. He only scored three points and missed all three threes that he attempted, one of six from the field, missed one of the two free throws that he attempted. But he did get six

rebounds and five assists against just one turnover. And under, and this was on a night where the Lakers turned the ball over 25 times, it felt like more, and gave up 28 points in the process. Also, it felt like more. So, and Jake was as harassed. when he had the ball as anybody else. So in that sense, he did a good job with that stuff, except under normal circumstances, six rebounds, five assists, and whatever points. That's Jake La Ravia playing his role as somebody who really is seen as a connective piece for this team.

But they needed Jake LaRavia to be more than a connector. They needed him to be an actual producer. Correct. And while I think there are nights, where Jake will produce, you know, essentially the counting stats department. And I know rebounds and assists are part of that. But this was a night where you see what can happen

if somebody gets moved up the pecking order. And it's not even a question of they can't handle it because Jake has scored points in games, but they can't be counted on to handle it. And that's the difference. And again, that's where you saw the, like the other four guys in the starting lineup. It was La Ravia, Austin, DeAndre, Rui, Vando. The other four scored in double figures, and I think, you know, obviously did not produce as much as was needed, in part because

all of them kept turning the ball over, and that limited their opportunities to score. But I'm just saying those guys at least met close to, if not the benchmarks for what you would expect from them as scores. Maybe you hope for a little more from Rui, a little more from Aiton, but they're at least in the ballpark of it. La Ravia, you needed him to move up from connective piece to more tangibly productive piece, and he didn't do it. He didn't. And what I thought, it's interesting to, too, to contrast La Ravia and Dalton. Because one of the things that makes you kind of worry a little bit about, like, a performance like this from Dalton, it's like, great. It can get him going and kind of bring back some confidence, but it's also not anything he's going to do

when the rest of the team is back. Like, Dalton in a situation like this is almost like a preseason game. It's like go be University of Tennessee Dalton Connect. Go score. Go take shots. Take some irresponsible shots. Put the ball on the floor. It's like, who else is going to do these things for us? And so like you can have Dalton do that kind of thing. thing. And it plays more into what like in a perfect in his, I think in a perfect world for himself. He'd be like, this is what I do. La Ravia sort of continued to play the role that he would have if everybody was back.

And what they needed from him was just a little bit more aggressivist. Now, to be fair to Jake, part of the problem was he is a guy. who's sort of on the perimeter and we're like, he needs to be, you know, this penetration to kick out to La Ravia or something like that. He's got to sort of get the ball. And so like it's not a perfect setup for him. It's a better game for somebody like Jared Vanderbilt

who's going to create through disruption. And that's what Vando did. He put a really nice game on Monday. But it's also, I think, why he was a bigger part of the offense. It's because, you know, like the one three-pointer, Vando shot, then maybe there was more than one. No, it was just one.

Just the one. Yeah, it was a corner three that did not touch anything. Do you think Vando's, I'm looking up, I'm going to look up right now, Vando's three point percentage. It likely does not include. It sounds good. No, no, I know it's not good. That's not what I'm trying to verify.

I knew that. It probably doesn't, okay, no, it's up to date. He's shooting 0% from behind the arc. But do you think Zando? 0.0.0. I was about to say if I thought maybe he had made one or whatever, but I wonder what is higher? His percentage of just missed threes or his percentage of airballed threes?

I mean, misses, not by. No, but like ones that hit the rim. Right. I know. It's ones that hit the rim are he has more of those than airballs, but it's not as, it's a tighter race. I'm honestly, I'm not sure. I'm actually,

I would be willing to make that. But like, again, it's tighter than I would want. But like, you know, Vando, this was not a night where for a player who needs sort of organized offense. And when he had the ball in his hands, La Ravia did some nice things. I mean, I picked him up in part because, you know, the Sacramento game, when they had a little bit more of that connectivity, you could see what he does. Like, he is a, I am, I remain very optimistic and play. pleased with that exchange, especially once they've added smart if they can keep on the floor.

I mean, DFS has not played yet. I don't believe in Houston. So he wouldn't be playing here either. And so you look at what. He had off-season ankle surgery for people who are unaware. Laravia, with that sort of point-forward kind of thing in the half court where it's just a good passer, finds the open guy, makes the right play. it's very valuable and it's and it's useful.

He wasn't able to go outside of that kind of comfort space and the Lakers didn't have the people to make it so he could be a really functional part of your offense. And so I think if they get smart back for Wednesday's game, it is going to make a tremendous difference. Absolutely. I mean, just a huge difference. And without smart, though,

they're going to be in the same boat. I'll tell you. Minnesota's going to, even without Anthony Edwards, Minnesota defensively is just going to be all over them. I'll tell you too. It would actually make a pretty big. This Minnesota game in particular, it would make a big difference if Jackson Hayes is back,

just because they run a lot of bigs between Rudy Gobert and Julius Randall and Nas Reid. Like that is, you know, obviously Ruy and Vando have their responsibilities there, but that can in a lot of ways, become a lot on DeAndre Aiton's plate. And as I mentioned before, Coloco's, I believe was three minutes were, it packed a lot of ugliness in three minutes.

So they really could use Hayes back for this game. Like this particular game, his presence, it probably wouldn't make as much of a difference as, you know, a competent or more than competent ball handler. But it would make a bigger difference. It would be a difference. It would be a better. It would make a bigger difference than it might in some other games that the Lakers could be facing in the immediate future.

Right, especially like you don't have Clayba. You don't have like you just you don't have these choices. And I will say this. The Lakers, if you were worried at all about their capacity to be a gritty team, to be a physical team to like, I know they turn the ball over a lot in this game. I know they were had struggled on the boards and stuff like that. I mean, again, Donovan Klingin is.

huge. It's just massive. And then they've got, you know, big, you know, big athletic guy, a lot of athletic guys who can, who can, you know, make your life difficult on the, on the glass. It's like, it was a difficult assignment for the Lakers who are missing some of their better rebounders. And then, you know, a guy like Denny Avia is, I mean, he's a sneaky All-Star candidate. He's that good at the matter. Shaden Sharpe's having a good season. You know, and, you know, Drew Holiday. There was a really, it was a funny moment.

Like, we were texting about this. Like, when, like, there was a possession where, like, Nick Smith is, like, flying all over the place and he's doing stuff and it's, and it's the arms and legs and, you know, things. But I mean, it might have even been when he, he got his lone bucket of the game. And then, like, Holiday comes back down and it's like zero wasted motion anywhere. whatever like and it just makes stuff happen and you know and all you look up and he's got 20 points and you know still playing like a player like that um you know would be that kind of just like a guy like

that makes a huge difference for a team and the lakers needed some need something like that while all these other guys are out but i am at least optimistic they play Wednesday is it Wednesday Friday, Sunday, Monday again. It's six games and nine nights. If you go back to and Luca's not. Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Monday, including the Blazers again on following Monday.

Right. And Luca is not expected to be evaluated again, at least until like the weekend. So they're going to have to steal a game or two. And I'm actually sort of confident that they can do it with if they can get a couple more guys back on the floor. I've been impressed with how they did these last couple months. I mean, look, they play hard, man. They play really hard.

JJ challenged them again to play with Edge. And I thought they did a good job with just trying to play as hard as they can, trying to, you know, you talked about how against Sacramento, they really dictated the rules of engagement. They were not as successful in this game, in part, because Portland has personnel to make it harder with the guys that they are missing than Sacramento does. But they really put in the effort. you've noted at the beginning of the show, and it's true, they never stopped playing.

Like, and, you know, a guy like DeAndre Aiton, his motor has been running so far in this season. That's a really good sign. Yep. Lockdown Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 36,000 subscribers to the channel. We will see everyone tomorrow when presumably game three will be over, but we don't know. Everyone have a good evening.